"You can not fail if you resolutely determine that you will not." -Abraham Lincoln

Does Delaware Have Too Many ATMs?

Recently, President Obama complained that the reason that unemployment is so pervasive, so pronounced & so persistent is that the United States has too many ATMs. The following is from RealClearPolitics.com:

Obama claims ATMs and kiosks at airports have eliminated some jobs.

“If you see it when you go to a bank you use the ATM, you don’t go to a bank teller. Or you go to the airport and you use a kiosk instead of checking in at the gate,” he said.

However, our Governor was recently lauded in a bi-partisan fashion for Delaware’s #1 ranking in “economic output per job.” This would be a measure of automation and efficiency. To have more economic output per job means that each job is highly efficient when compared to every other state (likely due to automation, like ATMs).

On the flip side, from the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, Delaware ranked 46th in the Country in the first quarter for personal income growth, and most of that growth came from the Republican push in the US Congress for tax relief (from the BEA, “A two-percentage point reduction in the personal contribution rate for social security accounted for most of the acceleration in first-quarter personal income growth in most states.”).

Now add to Delaware’s stagnant earnings growth that the Delaware Department of Labor just reported:

In May 2011, seasonally adjusted nonfarm employment was 412,200, down from 416,000 in April 2011. The over-the-month decrease of -3,800 jobs was mainly due to decreases in Professional and Business Services, Retail Trade, and Government.

So, to put these disparate pieces together, Jack Markell presides over a State with the most efficient businesses in the nation (Note: Government really has nothing to do with how efficient my business is other than the training we received from DEMEP, which doesn’t even have regular operating budget funding.). However, he also presides over a State that is shedding jobs and seriously lags the nation in income growth.

Perhaps, he should have a talk with the President because it would seem that we have too many ATMs.

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While the “idea” seems logical, Obama’s shallow understanding of ‘how things work’ (ex. see: Stimulus Goals vs Current Economy) ignores the jobs & opportunities that have been created by technological advances. The Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts bank teller jobs will increase 6% from 2008 – 2018, 8% in bank jobs overall and more branches opening. http://www.bls.gov/oco/cg/cgs027.htm#outlook If “the smartest man in the world” had thought about this for a few seconds, he would have realized ATM technology has increased employment for the tech sector in manufacturing (Diebold & Triton in USA) and maintenance/repair. Obama sounds like the guy who blames the invention of the wheel for eliminating the jobs of thousands of litter carriers. Stunningly, this comes from a smooth-talker who gave billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars to foreign companies to produce wind power equipment which will replace American jobs. http://abcnews.go.com/WN/wind-power-equal-job-power/story?id=9759949